Corona Devotionals

It is Winter in Ohio...and so there are no leaves on the trees.  Bare and bald trunks and branches stand naked in lines and clusters along the freeway, waiting for Spring buds and soon-to-come (Spring-to-come) green-leafed coverings.  The trees are brownish-gray and completely barren.  Without leaves, there is nothing much to see with them. Except hawks. I keep a hopeful eye out for hawks while on freeway drives throughout the entire year, but never are they more visible than when a tree's leaves have been stripped from its limbs. As we motored down the highway and zoomed-by tree after tree, I think I counted ten hawks during a forty-minute drive yesterday.   In Spring and Summer and even Fall, they perch hidden among the foliage, but in Winter, their white hawk-chests give them away long before our vehicle passes them.   The unleafed trees provide visibility to the hawk's beauty. The starkness allows for (makes-room-for) the revealing ...

Lord, I came to You crying.  Tears of empathy and sympathy and sincerity fell from my eyes and dripped from my heart.   Some of my loved ones are suffering.  The pain is real: physical pain, emotional anguish, and spiritual pain too. The pain. The pain. The pain.  Do you hear me, Lord?  I am hurting.  I am crying out for others who are hurting.   Pain, pain, pain of this world.   It is real and palpable, and almost unbearable today. " Help, Lord! ", I cried in tears, and prayers, and in journaled-ink. Don't You hear me, Father?  I am beseeching You in every way that I know how to bring relief to my loved ones...and to me. Won't you respond?  Won't You comfort?  Won't You console?  Won't You direct? But the Psalm that God laid in front of me did not apply .  Did not soothe.  Did not hear me. I was heavy.   Low.    ..Burdened with the burdens of others and of the world, and I wanted ...

Can we remember back to when we first began driving?  Such excitement!  Such responsibility!  And  always --so important to  ask  if we could borrow the car and the keys.  Our parents were the ones who  held the keys , and we had to come to them first for  keys  and permission. Most of us have been driving for a long time now.  We have our own sets of keys to our own cars.  But Jesus Christ is the keeper of another set of  keys , and if we have not yet asked Him for them, then today can be the day.  I hold the keys of death and the grave.  ~Revelation 1:18 Not long ago, I visited and prayed with a lady that was dying.  I shared about God and His Son Jesus and that they love each of us so much that God sent His Son to the cross to die for our sins.  We  know  that verse, and she did too: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...  ~John 3:16 But it is...

Then He said to them,  “Follow Me, and   I will make you fishers of men.”   ~Matthew 4:19 ~~~ Dear fisher of men and women, Keep it up!! I am so blessed to hear of your heart and efforts to shine the light of Christ into this dark world.   Thank you  for putting yourself out there to  share God's hope and truth with others. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  ( 9)  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  ( 10)  and find out what pleases the Lord.    ~Ephesians 5:8-10 Your heart for Christ is contagious and inspiring!  I love how you love Jesus and how you want to introduce Him to everyone that you encounter.  This is exactly  what Christ calls us to do as His followers...but so few do it!   You do it!   And I praise the Lord for your obedience to the Bible. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of G...

All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.  ( 6)  He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.  ~Revelation 1:5-6 ~~~ As we look to the cross and enter the Lenten season (forty days prior to Easter and Resurrection Sunday), God welcomes us with His Word...and His Truth.  Sometimes people wonder what "Lent" is about and...simply-put, it is a season where some take their faith one step more seriously, as we walk toward Good Friday and the sacrifice that Jesus made for us by dying on the cross on that day.  Lent recognizes Christ's holy sin-payment and asks us, "How will we respond?" Lent (and Jesus) don't stop there.  Good Friday occurred for us, but three days later Resurrection Sunday also  occurred for us, defeating satan and death.   Victory over death, over sin, over darkness and over our temporary earthly existence: that's what th...

At times, we may have seen some not-so-good  things come out of the woodwork, such as bugs or even rodents.  In these cases, "coming out of the woodwork",  wasn't a good thing.    But the other day, I had the opposite experience, and I had good things...great things , and  great people  come out of the woodwork.  Our school held a huge weekend event with thousands of people in attendance.  We knew it would be large, and our committee had planned, organized, and prepared in every way that we could prior to the day of the event.   We were ready , except we did not have enough volunteers.   Multiple pleas for help were requested over multiple mediums, from email to facebook and I even asked a few people point-blank in person.  But, it was surprising how little help we had.  Even the night before, we were still sparse on staffing for this big event. But  when the event day came:  God filled in the gaps with...